Chi'shin
by Tenchi -J. Hahn
Summary: Ryoko solo, mostly. An out-of-place symbol calls Ryoko to planet Tandera. Is it an old friend or a trap? Or both?
1. A Call from Elsewhere

"Let's try this door," said Ryoko, happily. The door in question slid open with a hydraulic SWACK and the silver-haired girl just stepped on through, not too closely followed by a very sheepish Detective Mihoshi, looking this way and that for the trouble the two of them richly deserved.

"Oh, Ryoko, is this the way out?" her companion asked for the fourth time. This space was walled with vast transparent panels, the better to see the huge aquariums beyond.

"Can't say, but I see someone who'll be happy to help us!" Ryoko gestured for Mihoshi to look across the immense room.

"Huh?" Mihoshi followed the direction and gave off a little squeak. "WASHU!"

Ryoko showed no guilt at all, walking across the distance humming a TV tune, twirling the fire ax that rested upon one shoulder. She knew Washu heard them enter and wasn't a bit surprised that the self-proclaimed genius continued to concentrate upon the virtual terminal floating before her. "What's up, short stuff?" Ryoko said pleasantly enough.

Mihoshi's greeting was less casual. "PLEASE DON'T BLAME ME! I DIDN'T KNOW SHE WAS GOING TO DO THAT! YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE ME! I WASN'T INVOLVED! Well, maybe, cause I got us both in here, BUT I WOULDN'T HAVE IF I HAD ONLY KNO-HO-HOWN!" The rest was lost in sobs as Mihoshi grabbed Washu's legs and held on dearly.

Washu looked down in surprise, and then back up with anything but surprise. "I suppose YOU have some explanation?" she asked her darling daughter.

Ryoko shrugged with a big smile. "Just a friendly visit to you and your labs. Not much beyond that."

The small scientist was unconvinced. "Hmmm. Just a friendly visit with no warning, hey? That's quite an ax you have there, but forgive me if I'm a little short on trees. Okay, humor me and (Hey, down there, you! You're getting personal! Leave go a bit, huh?) and so tell me what you're up to this time."

"Oh, nothing much. Just an annual check of your diagnostic equipment. And I'm sorry to say, it really doesn't measure up to spec at this moment!"

Washu did a very angry take. "Wh-hat! Ryoko! That was incredibly thoughtless of you! Tell me you didn't!"

She brought the ax off her shoulder with a grin and presented arms. "Mother, I cannot tell a lie. T'was I who had nothing to do with the complete and total chop-chop-chop of your med lab!"

"Ohhh! How could you do such a thing!" Washu angrily shook a leg free of Mihoshi's grasp to try and restore some circulation. "That section is also the only safe hospital available for any of you this side of Saturn AND in case you hadn't noticed, sometimes things get a little violent around here and awfully damned quick! Where was your head and why weren't you using it?" Washu had enough of the hysterics below her waist and started pulling Mihoshi off.

Ryoko set the ax on the floor and helped peal off the detective. "Will you relax? I mostly went for stuff you've used on Tenchi and me. I left the first aid alone. Besides, those gizmos never told you anything about us, anyway. I've just had it with the personal embarrassment you put the two of us through. And what do you mean, Saturn?"

"Mihoshi's mothership. It's parked there at the moment. And don't change the subject!"

"My ship!" Mihoshi's wet eyes got big. "Oh, I haven't checked in in oh so long! What will I do?"

"Now, Ryoko..." but Washu was again distracted by the other girl.

"Oh, please, Washu, I have to contact my ship! What will I do?"

Washu scowled in unpleasant thought, then said in a slow-and-patient tone, "Okay, your ship? You want to reach your ship?" She turned and hit a few keys on the virtual keyboard. Pictures on the translucent screen suddenly appeared. "Here, you just occupy yourself with this link-up. It will give you complete access to your ship's communications."

"Oh, thank you!"

"You're welcome," was Washu's dry response. "Now..."

"Hey," objected Ryoko. "Is it wise to do that? She's already made the House ground zero for the patrol ship! If she brings the cutter down..."

"I said communications, and I meant communications and stop trying to change the subject! Do you know how much it will cost to replace that gear? Even the raw materials are expensive!"

"Pfft! Like you paid for it in the first place! What do you have for cash, anyway?" accused Ryoko.

"Unlike some in this family, I pay my way! I didn't start with much, but with a bit of time and the miracle of compound interest, I think you'd find..."

"Oh, my goodness!" Mihoshi reached out and grabbed Washu, spinning her completely around. "Will you just look at that? I've never seen anything like it!"

Washu gave off an irritated grunt but looked at the screen because she had little choice. The picture made her stop and stare. Ryoko added her head and the sight caused her eyes to widen as well.

"I could swear I've seen that symbol before," said the blonde detective. The symbol she meant was painted on a building, a glass and chrome building of some twenty stories, a glass and chrome building hanging on the side of a cliff, with a single symbol painted across the upper fifteen of those twenty stories. It was something of an attention-getter.

"What does it mean, Ryoko?" asked Washu in a hush.

"Coincidence?" Ryoko offered back. "That's certainly not Earth. Could it be something local? Or interstellar?"

"I'll check!" With a wave of her hand, a second terminal became available to Washu. Her fingers flew.

Mihoshi looked at them blankly. "What?"

Ryoko leaned back over Mihoshi's shoulder and they both looked at the screen. "You have seen that symbol before, kiddo, and many times. In fact, every time I sign my name. It's the first symbol in 'Ryouko' in Japanese, the 'Ryou' part. The first part of Ryo-ohki's name, too."

"It's called 'kanji' not symbol," corrected Washu, "and I'm afraid that particular configuration is unique to planet Earth. However, it is also referenced in the General Encyclopedia of the Jurian Science Academy, probably due to Lady Funaho's Terran connection."

"So someone on Tandera would have no problem getting the information about Japanese?" asked Ryoko.

Washu blinked. "Well, no, but what makes you say it's Tandera?"

"Because Tanderans build their cities on cliff walls and valley floors, and because it says 'Tandera' in the caption on the picture. And because I was on Tandera once, a long, long time ago."

Washu held the silence for a long moment, then said softly, "Probably a trap."

Ryoko drew her lips tight. "Probably. But if not, well, like you say, we should pay our way. I have a debt waiting for me on Tandera, with lots and lots of interest by now. Really no choice this time."

Washu nodded.

Mihoshi stared at them. "All that from a picture of graffiti?"

-------------------------------------------------

The cries of Ryo-ohki finished echoing about the valley, as Ryoko stood on the deck watching her companion and space vessel hover above the lake. She was about to will herself aboard when she heard footsteps pounding somewhere on the boards.

Tenchi Masaki turned the corner and almost ran her down. "Oh!" he cried, "Good! I'm glad I caught you!"

"Tenchi! How sweet! But as I said, this is no biggie! I'm simply going to say hi to an old friend. You needn't make such a big deal of it!" Not that she wasn't pleased that he was making a big deal of it.

"I know. I just wanted you to take this along." He presented a package, that Ryoko identified immediately.

"Oh, Tenchi! This is your mother's kimono, isn't it?" She thought and pushed it back. "No, really I can't! It means too much to you!"

"Please! I just want to loan it to you. Just something to take on the trip, let you think of home, when you wear it."

Just something to make me think of you, Tenchi, was Ryoko's thought. So why can't you come out and say that?

"Well, I don't... Okay. I'll treat it ever so carefully, I promise!" She held it close and smiled.

A door slid and a less pleasing form appeared. Crown Princess Ayeka, Jewel of the crown of Jurai, and another free-loading guest of the Masakis , walked with a dignified air towards the couple, holding out a small box in a way that suggested it contained a freshly caught mouse. "Well, I'm glad you haven't gone so this work wasn't wasted! Sasami thought you might get hungry on your voyage so I -I mean, we - SHE packed this lunch for you. I think you'll find it suitable." She added this to the package Ryoko was already clutching.

"If not, I can always use the worms to go fishing. Thank SASAMI for me, won't you?"

"Indeed. What's this?" Ayeka indicated the first parcel.

Tenchi jumped in, "Oh, that's from me. It's ..."

"It's a change of clothes, not that it's any of your business, Miss Busybody!" Ayeka looked at Tenchi for confirmation, which he did in a rather poor fashion.

Ryoko sighed. She'd miss this, in some strange way, and again argued with herself about bringing the whole crew along. But, no. If it was what she thought it was, they would just get bored and that usually meant things getting out of control. And if her worst fears were true, well, they would become targets, too. Besides, she could always use somebody on the outside to come running if things went sour. Washu knew the full story, well, at least as well as it could be known at this point. That would be enough, for now.

Good-byes were said and Ryoko was suddenly aboard the command deck of Ryo-Ohki. She fell into a seat that appeared behind her and set the lunch on a flat-toped crystal that obediently floated alongside. She set Tenchi's bundle on her lap with a soft smile, and wondered once again about living with loving people who never could seem to say the words. She shook her head, knowing how a simple 'Love you!" would so heal her battered heart. And whenever she entered into doubt, that was when the small gestures would appear. Like these gifts. They meant love, love without the words. Didn't they?

She willed a pocket to open in the black and red flight suit. From it she drew a bank chit and a scrap of paper. The paper listed contacts on Tandera, official contacts the old Pirate Ryoko could never had used in her previous life. Mihoshi thought she needed them. And the chit, it was old, very old, crafted in a way no one bothered with anymore. Given the source, Ryoko doubt it worked anymore, but it was, you know, the gesture.

Ryo-ohki's sight couldn't make out the two small forms standing before Masaki House, watching the sky, so she put a large view of Earth on the screen, instead. Soon enough, it would dwindle, as well. Soon enough.


	2. GXPTandera

The largest city on Tandera ran up and down the sides of a long snaking canyon, a deep receptacle for water, air, and humanoid life. The older and poorer sections were stone and masonry, places where the earth had been laid bare, tunneled into, and the bones of the planet laboriously hauled forth to capture pockets of space high above the feeble streams that lay at the bottom. The city proper, though, was refined metal, glass, and plastic, flowing shapes that took their cue from the natural landscape, modern boxes that clung there, staggered in steps from the bottom to as far above the rim as the planet's weak atmosphere would allow.

The brightly colored cab-skiff moved briskly along with the traffic at lower midlevel. The driver knew his job, traveling just fast enough to avoid the Halt flags, and then easily cruising up to Ryoko's stop. He set the skiff down in a landing bowl, and barked out the fare. His passenger asked him to repeat it in Jurian credits, and paid the man, adding a barely adequate tip. He was up and off into traffic before Ryoko was three steps on the walkway.

Ryo-Ohki stood up on Ryoko's shoulder, small paws on the girl's head, and wondered at the shining city, alive with crowds on the walkways and skiffs in the sky. Ryoko was more concerned about the dwindling number of small plastic oblongs she held in one hand. This Jurian script, found slipped in along the side of the lunchbox, was their only cash, at least until Ryoko could find a tel-pole and somehow get Washu's bank chit to work. Until then, things would have to be tight.

This doing it on the legit was really beginning to suck.

The skywalks, like the façades of the buildings they clung to, were almost never uniform, but had narrow runs that squeezed the crowd in-between wider zones that at times could be considered plazas. The city was so huge that there was always areas of construction, demolition, repair or cleaning, and more than once Ryoko and her small companion found themselves walking within some tunnel of scaffolding. Some people stood and talked, some sat by the walls begging, some tried to sell who knows what, one or two performed for coins, but mostly everyone was walking, and walking fast. Ryoko happily took it all in, comparing the experience to her last visit hundreds of years before, and finding the place vastly improved with age. It would get even better with some cash in pocket.

Ahead this particular walkway level bowed out in a huge circle. The crowd near the buildings kept walking, but those near the edge were standing, staring, pointing across the valley. Ryoko maneuvered the two of them to the railing and took a good look herself.

The building block rose from five stories below lower midlevel to just below midlevel. It was in this fifteen story space that the painter had created his work. The image was big and it was beautiful and it was definitely the first kanji in 'Ryouko.' It was also incomplete, as workmen on a tub were slowly placing big rectangles of glass. Whether they felt it would be faster to just replace the material, or the paint was uncommonly stubborn, Ryoko couldn't tell, but she could see this was no simple tagging. The strokes weren't solid, but were actually a series of stylized demons, scampering about, showing fangs and sticking out tongues. The girl looked up and down the bizarre mural, thinking that perhaps a team had painted it. But no, it was too uniform. One person in one hurried night had poured himself into a temporary vandalism just to, by the slimmest chance, reach her. Ryoko didn't know art, but she recognized talent and hard work when she saw it.

The use of demons made her think. Did the artist understand the nature of demons to combine with themselves, or was it just a play on her name? Or just coincidence? If the person responsible was the one she had come looking for, well, he more than appreciated demonic powers. If not, then what?

It was a soft hooting, but a familiar one, somewhere off in the crowd. Ryoko sighed and dropped her shoulders a bit, causing the cabbit to give a small questioning meow. With a 'Here we go again' smile, Ryoko turned her head and gently rubbed Ryo-Ohki's cheek. "We just have to get you a new aura, kiddo," she said in a low voice.

Another familiar sound, the power-up whine of a blaster. From just behind them came a woman's voice, very hard. "Terrible pirate Ryo-Ohki! In the name of the Galaxy Police, I detain you and command you to accompany me for questioning!"

Hands where anyone could see them, Ryoko turned as the crowd found somewhere else to be and a new show to gawk at. "Okay, officer, you got her!" The 'officer' standing there was indeed GXP, from her pointy boots up to her cork-shaped blue bonnet. She was tall, thin, a knockout, with long teal hair so dark it was almost black. She also had a steady aim and the same 'You're Under Arrest' game face of her distant colleague. Why was it that the Galaxy Police was made up of pudgy males and stacked, sexy humanoid females, mused Ryoko a bit irrationally. Someone should look into their hiring practices.

"Are you coming quietly or will you resist?" the cop asked.

Ryoko gave it some mock thought. "Well, let's see. Hm! I think, oh, what? Oh, let's say ... Neither!"

"And who would you be?"

"Who, me? Well, what does the jobbie on your wrist tell you, hm? Who would be with 'Terrible Pirate Ryo-Ohki,' anyway?"

The officer took a moment to look into the spinning lights far down her out-stretched arm. Within the briefest second after that, the blaster aim shifted from the cabbit to the pirate. "Ryoko!"

"'Ryoko?' Just 'Ryoko?' What happened to 'Most Wanted Pirate Ryoko?'"

"What are you doing here?"

"Oh, it's okay! I got an invitation!" Ryoko lifted Ryo-Ohki up and knelt to set her on the pavement. "Look, I'll make you a deal. You ask the spud here a few questions right now, and if you make any sense out of the answers, any sense at all, we'll be happy to go off someplace official and let you give us your best third degree. How's that?"

"Well..." With a soft floofing sound, the cabbit changed into a cute and fuzzy three year old sweetly bundled in a yellow-ocher kimono. "YIKES!" The watching crowd liked this part.

"She can get even bigger. LOTS bigger!" Ryoko looked down with satisfaction, then over to the startled policeman. "Anytime, officer!"

"Um, okay! Are you the destructive pirate... um..."

"Feels sort of silly, doesn't it?"

"Just shut up, will you? Okay, are you Ryo-Ohki?"

With a smile, she responded, "Miah!" Her eyes were bright and shiny and focused on the oh-so tasty crystalline emitter on the business end of the police blaster.

"Are you involved in the terror and destruction of the Jurai Empire some 700 standard years ago?"

"Miah!"

"Um, what was the latest incident you were a part of?"

"Miah!"

Ryoko just enjoyed her smile and patted the cabbit girl on the shoulder. "Explain it to the nice copper, love." whereupon Ryo-Ohki began her latest accomplishment, a stirring rendition of 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat.' And since that song is a round, as soon as she finished, she started again. And again. And again.

The interrogator squatted down and just gawped as her suspect sang with kawaii hand accompaniment. The blaster ended up hanging loose in her hand. "She's an idiot!"

"No, she's young and innocent, and that makes her a child," corrected Ryoko. "However, someone asking questions of a bio-ship simply because there's no statute of limitations on them, I think there's your idiot." She gathered the small form up, squeezing the air out and cutting off the song. Ryo-Ohki puffed back into cabbit form and scrambled up to sit on Ryoko's head, prompting the crowd to a smattering of applause. "I'm holding you to your word. We're leaving now." And they did.

The officer shouldered her way through the closing crowd, obviously not giving up. "Now wait a minute! I remember now! Aren't you suppose to be living in the Sol Preserve?"

Ryoko didn't even look in her direction. "Great! A Royals groupie! Keeping up on their location, eh?"

"Uh, not exactly," said her pursuer with a touch of evasion in her voice as she holstered her gun. "It's not important."

The pirate whirled, putting her face directly into the other's. "Just who are you anyway and why won't you stop pestering me?"

The officer stepped back and pulled herself up. "I'm Special Detective Makibi Kiyone, of the Galaxy Police."

"Well, goodie for you!" Ryoko thought a moment. "Kiyone? Kiyone. Where have I heard that name before?"

The color drained from Detective Kiyone's face. "Uh, it's a common name. Like I said, it's not important!"

"And you're here to keep me on a leash, I suppose?" Would the others have done that? Would they have warned ahead for someone to keep an eye on her?

"I'm here because of that vandalism back there! It's like nothing the Tanderans have ever seen and they called me down to see in there's an interstellar angle."

"Yeah, well, Jurian Science Academy," said Ryoko, in a less than friendly voice.

"Huh?"

"Jurian Science Academy. Main encyclopedia, Anthropological section. Comparative Symbology."

"What's that suppose to mean?"

"I have no idea, but they told me to say that if some overly-formal official started following me around like a retarded puppy!"

The silver-haired woman whirled again and almost ran into a bright red pole sticking out of the walkway. At the top was a sign for the Royal Bank of Jurai. "Finally!" she cried.

Ryoko pulled the chit from her belt and inserted it in one of the dozen different holes in the slim kiosk. On the pad, she keyed the ident code.

"(1-2-3-4)? What kind of stupid ident is that?" said Kiyone from one shoulder.

"Hey! You're not suppose to look!"

"What do you mean? You're suppose to shield it with your other hand!"

"Not where I come from!"

"Yeah? Well take a look around, Ryoko. You ain't where you come from!"

Those words sunk in fast. She was far from any help beyond the cabbit, and admittedly, she hadn't traveled in a very, very long age. "Okay, look. I'm just here to catch up with an old friend from the last time I was here. I'll see what he wants, and then I'm gone, I'm home. I promise, no trouble."

"Think he's still alive?" The detective tapped her wrist comp-con. "Says here it's been awhile."

"He's a Zhelata. Shouldn't be a problem." The tel-pole chimed and a flimsy came out. "Let's see here. Oh, man! This bank balance is all screwed up!"

"May I see?" Ryoko handed over the strip, and Kiyone looked for the balance line. Her eyes got very big indeed. "Ryoko, this is scientific notation. I've never seen a bank balance in scientific notation before!"

"Meaning?"

"Look." Kiyone pointed a finger at the printing. "Here's this three, okay? Now, this marks the decimal, and then we use this number here, you take the three and add this many zeros after it. The computer printed it this way cause it wouldn't have fitted otherwise."

It was Ryoko's turn to widen her eyes and if she could have turned each golden iris into a golden yen mark, she would have. "She was right. She said there was a miracle to compound interest!"

Kiyone huffed. "No kidding! I've seen people build churches for lesser miracles than that!" She reached into a pocket and drew out a card. "Since you seem to own half the economy of the city, I'm gonna hope this means no trouble on your part. If you do need help, do it through official channels. The signal code is forwarded by my cutter to the local police. They can reach me from there."

Ryoko took the card and read it. She reached into the belt formed by her sash and pulled a similar card, which she presented to a startled Kiyone. "I live in civilized parts now!" was her reply.

Detective Kiyone stared at the card in her hands. "Entrepreneur? Is that what it's called now?"

"Nice meeting you, detective, but I think this situation calls for a real bank. I'll remember where I've heard of you, I'm sure, when I have time to waste on it. Other than that, I don't think we'll meet again!"

Kiyone watched Ryoko and Ryo-Ohki disappear into the ever-present midmorning crowds. "Now, why don't I believe that," she asked herself, absently tapping Ryoko's business card on her thigh. "Why don't I believe that at all?"


End file.
